Orioles 9, Twins 1: Trevor May loses control in wild fourth

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Trevor May sits in the dugout in the fifth inning against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, Aug. 29, 2014, in Baltimore. Baltimore scored five runs in the fourth, and May was relieved in the bottom of the fifth. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

BALTIMORE -- As what had been a highly encouraging start quickly spiraled out of control, Trevor May could sense what was happening but ultimately felt powerless to stop it.

"It's crazy," the Twins rookie right-hander said Friday night after a 9-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. "It was literally like little two- to three-minute lapses where everything happened."

Chris Davis' fourth career grand slam will lead the highlights, but May's fourth-inning troubles began with back-to-back plunkings of Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz after a leadoff single.

As the 2-1 fastball headed straight for Cruz's ribs, May yelled out a warning to the majors' home run leader. Cruz didn't have enough time to escape -- and neither did May.

"It looked like he just lost his poise out there," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He's got to learn to control his emotions."

May correctly noted that he hadn't hit any batters all year, so those consecutive misfires clearly seemed to rattle him. Instead of slowing things down, however, he seemed to speed up out of the stretch.

May struck out Delmon Young for the second straight time, but he followed that up with a four-pitch walk to J.J. Hardy, another of the three ex-Twins in the Orioles lineup.

His fastball command once again abandoning him when he needed it most, May fell behind 3-1 in the count before Davis took him out to right field.

His mind spinning, May continued to use the slide step even with the bases loaded and Davis at the plate.

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That resulted in the first home run off May since June 21, when he was pitching for Triple-A Rochester at Buffalo.

"I've got to slow the game down there," May said. "I have to take control of it again and just kind of be aware of what I'm doing and fix it. It's a game of adjustments. Make an adjustment."

Before Davis' blast, May had allowed just four home runs this season in 116 combined innings between Triple-A Rochester and the majors.

That completed a span of five straight batters to whom May failed to throw a strike within the first two pitches.

In all, he fell behind with ball one to seven straight hitters to start the fourth. That worrisome stretch followed a sharp first three innings in which May gave up just a broken-bat single to Hardy.

May opened seven of his first 10 batters with a strike, fanning four.

He finished the night with a career-high eight strikeouts but also an equal number of earned runs allowed after Young chased him with a controversial two-run homer in the fifth.

A fan appeared to reach over the left-field wall to grab the ball as a leaping Jordan Schafer failed to corral it. However, replay review in New York City confirmed the on-field ruling.

May, who turns 25 on Sept. 23, had led 4-3 through five innings in his last start, a home matchup with Detroit's Justin Verlander. A positive side session with pitching coach Rick Anderson left May encouraged about the sharpness of his off-speed pitches and the life on his fastball, which led to 16 swing-and-miss strikes on 84 pitches Friday.

Despite those steps forward, May left with another ugly line after allowing six hits and a walk. His earned-run average spiked to 10.42 after failing to last five innings for the third time in four big-league starts.

"At this level, you either do your job or you don't do your job," he said. "That's how you see yourself out of a job. As of yet, I haven't. I haven't done it at all."

The Twins avoided a shutout when Trevor Plouffe connected in the seventh inning for the 10,000th home run in franchise history, dating to the Washington Senators in 1901.

Before Plouffe's 11th homer of the year, the Twins had hit just two homers in their previous 66 innings. Both of those came off Detroit infielder Andrew Romine in a 20-6 blowout victory one week earlier.